Written Answers Monday 20 December 2010

Scottish Executive

Foster Care

Karen Whitefield (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in improving national support for foster carers.

Adam Ingram: The Scottish Government recognises the importance of foster care within the wider care sector and the critical role played by Scotland’s foster carers. We have continued to fund national third sector organisations that support foster carers and promote the development of foster care and we are fully protecting funding for 2011-12.

  Additional financial support is provided to the fostering network to promote the recruitment and retention of foster carers. In particular, we have, since October 2008, funded a project that aims to build on the good practice already in place between fostering services. The project’s current phase of work is intended to develop joint working and sharing of resources between authorities, particularly in relation to assessment, training and support for foster carers.

Health

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what issues it plans to discuss with the Scottish Muscle Network to facilitate the implementation of recommendations in the Cross-party Group on Muscular Dystrophy’s Mackie Report and the Scottish Muscle Network’s report on neuromuscular services.

Nicola Sturgeon: My meeting with representatives of the Scottish Muscle Network, which is due to take place early in 2011, has been arranged to discuss taking forward the recommendations in both the mapping exercise carried out by the network and in the Mackie Report published by the Cross Party Group on Muscular Dystrophy.

Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason the gap between the average salary and someone working in the NHS increased from £4,343 to £7,223 between 2004 and 2009.

Nicola Sturgeon: NHS staff, ranging from cleaners to highly paid consultants, have benefitted financially from a sustained period of pay modernisation that includes the introduction of Agenda for Change for non-medical staff in 2004, the new consultant contract in 2004 and the new contract for staff grade and associate specialist doctors in 2008.

  This modernisation has ensured that staff receives equal pay for work of equal value; introduced standard terms and conditions, and facilitated new ways of working to take account of changing clinical practices. More recently, the Scottish Government has made clear its intention to make sure public sector pay settlements are tightly constrained in the current financial climate and remain affordable and sustainable. This is demonstrated by our public sector pay policy that has introduced a pay freeze for all staff earning less than £21,000 per annum in 2011-12.

Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive where the resources of the NHS can be allocated in order to maximise health quality and outcomes at Scottish Government and NHS board level.

Nicola Sturgeon: The majority of the resources of the NHS in Scotland are allocated using the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) formula. This shows the target allocations to the territorial NHS boards in order to help deliver equal access to high quality healthcare according to the relative needs of their populations. Information on the latest NRAC formula target allocations is published at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/5785.html

  Decisions on how NHS boards can best allocate their resources within each board area are made by NHS boards, taking into account local and national priorities, including the ambitions set out in the Healthcare Quality Strategy. Details of the quality strategy are available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/NHS-Scotland/NHSQuality.

Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason no more than six of the 36 hospital inspections carried out by the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate in 2009-10 were unannounced.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate operates independently and determines the inspections it will undertake. The rationale for the approach adopted during the first year of operation and future plans are set out in the Chief Inspector’s Annual Report that can be accessed on the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland website at:

  http://www.nhshealthquality.org/nhsqis/8679.html.

Housing

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions it has given approval for more homes to be built on new housing developments than originally applied for in each of the last five years.

Alex Neil: When Scottish ministers or a reporter from the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals (DPEA) issue a decision on a planning application or appeal it should not be for more than was originally applied for to the planning authority, as this would generally be considered a material difference to the proposed development. Changes to planning legislation that came into effect in August 2009 make it clear that a development proposal cannot be varied on appeal. It is, however, open for an applicant to submit a fresh planning application seeking a larger number of houses on a site that already has planning permission. In these circumstances if the application or appeal came to Scottish ministers or a reporter from DPEA to determine, consent may be granted that has the effect of increasing the number of houses on a site. Scottish ministers do not hold information concerning how many times this may have happened.

Housing

Marlyn Glen (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much the Affordable Housing Investment Programme has allocated in the Dundee City Council area in each year since 2006-07, also expressed in real terms.

Alex Neil: Most of the Affordable Housing Investment Programme (AHIP) is used to provide grants to registered social landlords (RSLs) to build new homes for rent and low-cost home ownership, but also includes grants and assistance to councils, individuals and private companies.

  Dundee City Local Authority Area, AHIP Spend  

  

Year
Actual Spend (£ million)
Actual Spend Expressed in Real Terms (£ million)


2006-07
12.975
13.951


2007-08
17.606
18.381


2008-09
8.467
8.585


2009-10
12.337
12.337


2010-11
6.128*
6.128*



  Note: *Estimate.

  All figures based on official published statistics. Gross domestic product deflators have been used to express the actual spend in real terms from data provided by the Office for National Statistics.

Housing

Elaine Smith (Coatbridge and Chryston) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-37186 by Alex Neil on the 8 November 2010, whether it will provide an estimated cost for collecting information and statistics regarding the coverage of residual current devices in domestic properties throughout Scotland.

Alex Neil: The most appropriate way to collect this information would be through the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS).

  The costs relating to adding a question on residual current devices into the SHCS would relate to the preparation, piloting and training for this question. We estimate that it would cost about £4,000 to introduce a question similar to the question included in the equivalent survey in England. The physical form would have to be revised to collect this extra information and may involve dropping or refining current items. The estimated cost also assumes that the time taken to carry out the physical survey will not increase, and so the SHCS surveyors will not get an extra fee for collecting this information. The next available opportunity to add a question on residual current devices into the SHCS would be in 2011 with the question being asked in the 2012 calendar year. The inclusion of a question on residual current devices will have to be balanced against the need for other questions in the survey.

Justice

Marlyn Glen (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many charges under the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 reported to the procurator fiscal in (a) Dundee and (b) Tayside in each year since 2008-09 have resulted in (a) court proceedings and (b) a successful prosecution, also broken down by section of the Act.

Kenny MacAskill: The number of charges reported to the procurator fiscal in 2009-10 is provided in the answer to question S3W-38173 on 16 December 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

  The available information on court proceedings and convictions is given in the following table. Persons proceeded against and convicted in Scottish Courts under the Emergency Workers (Scotland)Act 20051 in Dundee City and Tayside2, 2008-093  

  

Local Authority
Proceeded Against
Convicted


Dundee City
 
 


Section 1(1)
3
3


Section 2(1)
1
1


Section 5(1)
2
2


Total Dundee City
6
6


Tayside
 
 


Section 1(1)
5
5


Section 2(1)
2
2


Section 5(1)
9
9


Total Tayside
16
16



  Source: Scottish Government Justice Analytical Service.

  Notes: 1. Where main offence. 2. Based on an approximate mapping of sheriff courts into local authority areas. Some sheriff courts will deal with cases from more than one local authority area. 3. The reference year is the date that the person’s case was disposed of. Data extracted from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) database and the Scottish Government Court Proceedings database are not entirely consistent. The COPFS data are charge-based, while the Scottish Government data are persons-based, and while the COPFS data are based on the date that the case was reported to COPFS, the reference year in the Scottish Government data is the date that the person’s case was disposed of. In addition, the COPFS data count charges reported to procurator fiscal offices in Dundee and Tayside, while the Scottish Government data use an approximation of persons proceeded against in courts within Dundee and Tayside local authorities. Information for 2009-10 will not be available until publication of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, 2009-10 Statistical Bulletin. This is due to be published on 25 January 2011. The dates of all Scottish Government Official and National Statistics publications are pre-announced, and the up to date list of future publications can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Search/Forthcoming.

Justice

Bill Aitken (Glasgow) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive in how many cases before the domestic abuse court the accused plead at the (a) first appearance and (b) intermediate diet and was found guilty after trial in each of the last five years.

Hugh Henry (Paisley South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many warrants were issued for those who failed to appear at a fines court in 2009-10.

Hugh Henry (Paisley South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have reappeared at a fines court following a failure to fulfil previous requests in each year since 2007.

Hugh Henry (Paisley South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many fiscal fines were not paid in 2009-10.

Hugh Henry (Paisley South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many unpaid fixed penalty notice cases were taken before a fines court in 2009-10.

Kenny MacAskill: This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court Service (SCS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCS who will reply in writing.

Road Safety

Charlie Gordon (Glasgow Cathcart) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what statutory responsibilities chief constables have for road safety and under what legislation.

Kenny MacAskill: Chief constables do not have any specific statutory responsibilities for road safety. They have a responsibility under the Police (Scotland) Act 1967: to "protect persons and property".

Social Work

Des McNulty (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to make family group conferencing or an equivalent approach available to all children and extended families for which care in the extended family needs to be considered

Adam Ingram: It is for local authorities to determine, in consultation with families to whom they provide social work services, what type of services, including family group conferencing and other approaches, best meet their needs. The Scottish Government supports the use of family group conferencing and other supportive interventions, and has funded and published research about the impact of these in recent years.

  (Aldgate and McIntosh, Scottish Executive 2006 www.swia.gov.uk/swia/files/j7435.pdf). Family group conferencing has been highlighted in strategy documents and guidance, for example, in the guidance on the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 and Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 published in June 2010.

Weather

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with police forces concerning how to respond to cold weather conditions.

Kenny MacAskill: The Scottish Government Resilience Room was activated on 25 November 2010 and has been liaising on a daily basis with the various agencies involved in responding to the consequences of the cold weather conditions, including the police forces. The resilience room remains active to co-ordinate the multi-agency effort to tackle the consequences of the weather conditions and is open 24/7.

  The Cabinet Sub-Committee on Scottish Government Resilience (Severe Weather) (CSC-SGoR) has met and discussed the 2010-11 winter conditions daily since 24 November 2010. There have been 23 CSC-SGoR meetings from 24 November 2010 to 15 December 2010 (inclusive). There have also been 15 ministerial resilience meetings with external organisations during this time. The CSC-SGoR meetings have been attended by ministers, officials and representatives of external organisations, representatives of Scotland’s police forces and the strategic co-ordinating groups established under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

Weather

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Age Scotland, WRVS and other relevant organisations regarding the needs of older and vulnerable people during severe weather.

Alex Neil: The Scottish Government is in regular dialogue with Age Scotland, WRVS and other organisations that represent the interests of older people. Age Concern were one of the many key stakeholders contacted over the last few weeks to check what additional help could be given in communicating advice given the severe weather conditions.